Pope says death penalty always ‘inadmissible’

Pope Francis declared Thursday that the death penalty is always “inadmissible” in a reform of the Catholic Church’s official stance on capital punishment.

The church previously taught that the death penalty could be used in “very rare, if not practically nonexistent” circumstances, “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”

The church’s new stance is that capital punishment is always “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

The Holy See also pledged in a statement to work “with determination” to abolition the practice worldwide.

In Europe, only Belarus still applies the death penalty, while the practice is still in use in more than half of the states in the U.S.

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Irene Duym

Of course, death penalty is “inadmissible”: why is that so for Catholics? Because only their god can decide to take one’s life. For some reason. Suicide is also “inadmissible”. A man doesn’t own his life either. So is such a dogma supposed to be respectful of life, no matter the issue? Is life more important than a man’s acts or pains? The irony of religion has no limits.

Posted on 8/2/18 | 6:48 PM CET

florin silberman

The position taken by the Pope (which I do not sympathize with) is not restricted to Catholics. There are many other people of all confessions that oppose the death penalty and are very vocal about it.
Incidentally, the use of the expression “their god” is meaningless and wrong. That god is not a Catholic property or creation. it is the same divinity in all monotheistic religions.

Posted on 8/2/18 | 11:47 PM CET

Tim Haley

How does God view the death penalty ? When Noah disembarked from the Ark in 2369 B.C.E. following the global deluge, he was told by God to “be fruitful and become many and fill the earth……Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you…..Only flesh with its life – its blood – you must not eat. Besides that, I will demand an accounting for your lifeblood……Anyone shedding man’s blood (as through murder), by man (or governmental rule) will his own blood be shed, for in God’s image, he made man”.(Gen 9:1, 3-6)

Being ‘ made in God’s image ‘, man has the capacity and legal right to pass judgment on those who maliciously take another person’s life. At Exodus 21:12, under the Mosaic Law, it states that “anyone who strikes a man so that he dies must be put to death”.

And at Leviticus 24, again it states that “if a man takes a human life (deliberately), he should be put to death without fail……The man who strikes and kills an animal (of another person or without just cause), should make compensation for it, but the one who strikes and kills a man should be put to death”.(Lev 24:17, 21)

And at Numbers 35, it says that “whoever kills a person should be put to death as a murderer on the testimony of witnesses, but no one will be put to death on the testimony of just one witness. You must take no ransom (or payment that frees the guilty party) for the life of a murderer who is deserving to die, for he should be put to death without fail”.(Num 35:30, 31)

And Numbers 35:33 says that “there may be no atonement for the blood that has been spilled (by murder) on the land except by the blood of the one who spilled it (or by putting the murderer to death)”.(Num 35:33) And at Deuteronomy 19, it states that “if a man hated his fellow man, and he was waiting to attack him and he fatally wounded him and he died, and the man has fled to to one of these (six) cities (of refuge), the elders of his city should then summon him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood (next of kin to the dead man), and he must die. You should not feel sorry for him, and you must remove the guilt of innocent blood out of Israel, so that it may go well for you”.(Deut 19:11-13)

And Jesus quoted how the Jewish judicial system viewed murder: “You heard that it was said to those in ancient times: ‘ You must not murder, but whoever commits a murder will be accountable to the court of justice”.(Matt 5:21)

Jesus even went further by saying that just having unrelenting hate for someone without remorse and culling it out in their heart will bring on their everlasting destruction, saying that “whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt (Raca in the King James Bible) will be accountable to the Supreme Court; and whoever says, ‘ You despicable fool ! ‘ will be liable to fiery Gehenna (or everlasting destruction)”.(Matt 5:22)

The apostle John continued with what Jesus said: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has everlasting life remaining in him”.(1 John 3:15) But who is the greatest “murderer” of all ?

At Revelation 18, it establishes that the false religious empire called Babylon the Great (or all the religions of the world, of which Christendom is a major part) is the most reprehensible: “Yes, in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of ALL those who have been slaughtered on the earth”.(Rev 18:24)